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Aestia
Aestia (Couronian: Aistii; Latgalian: Estija), officially the Federal Republic of Aestia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Estonia, Ugandia, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, Sweden and by a maritime border with Gürdholm, Germany and Finland. Aestia has 6,121,293 inhabitants and a a territory of 123,540 km2 (47,699 sq mi). The country has a temperate seasonal climate. Aestia is a democratic parliamentary federal republic established in 1990 after the reunification of Latgalia and Courland. The country is divided in 13 states which are further divided in 87 districts, 11 Cities and Free City of Vastervik. The capital city and the largest city is Riga. The country has two official languages: Couronian language and Latgalian language. Etymology History The ancestors of modern day Balts settled on the eastern coast of the Baltic sea sometime around 3000 BC. They established trade routes to Rome and Byzantium known as the Amber Road. By 800 AD five distinct Baltic tribes settled Aestia proper: Couronians, Latgalians, Semigallians, Selonians and the Vends, as well as the Livonians speaking a Finnic language. The Medieval period Coursa The Medieval period in Aestia began in 864 when Bandaua was conquered by Vikings. The Couronians of Bandaua were very warlike, and the Vikings were barely able to suppress the unrest. In order to sustain peace in the newly occupied province they sent the heir of the throne of Norway, Prince Sigurd. During his trip the king of Norway was killed by Sigurd's younger brother. Sigurd was not content with what had happened and therefore he declared the independence of Bandaua in 867. Prince Sigurd died in 879 in a battle with the Vikings but this time they were unable to conquer Bandaua. For many years the war for the throne of Bandaua raged on until in Lamekins won in 892. After his death in 912, his eldest son, Ako married the only heir to the throne of Ventaua - Princess Teita. This was followed by the founding of Coursa by unifying both states. The Fall of Coursa(1200—1247) After a long economic crisis caused by the lack of trade with other countries which in turn was caused by the Couronian paganistic beliefs, one of the last kings of Coursa, Alnis tried to reform economic and political policies of Coursa. The provinces had begun becoming ever more independent from the king of Coursa who was unable to help the country recover from the economic crisis. Another problem was the amount of ethnic groups living in the country who were unable to cooperate and live peacefully. Only a handful of the inhabitants of Coursa supported the reforms but the most, including the vassals, did not. The vassals did not want to lose their rights and therefore any improvements were impossible. Therefore he took aggressive measures and deprived the vassals from their rights. This caused Aestian Civil War in 1219 between the vassals who had declared themselves independent and the king which resulted in a coup d'état of the king in 1223 by Alexander of Polotsk. He dismissed the First High Council of Coursa and killed all it's members. A military dictatorship was launched which ended the civil war. In order to sustain the growing financial demand of army the peasants were subjugated to serfdom. He initiated further reforms which were not completed due to a revolution in which he was killed by the peasant forces which had occupied the king's castle. In 1231 the Second High Council of Coursa resumed it's operations. Immediately it was decided to reduce the rights of the king. The king played a representative role afterwards. In 1236 a compromise was found between the High Council and the southern separatists. They decided to dispart Bessarabia and the coastal regions of the Black Sea from Coursa and managed to ensure peace with the southern separatists. In 1238 the High Council voted to dismiss the king. Soon afterwards Mongol hordes began assaulting Aestia's eastern border whereas the baptized nations of Central Europe began attacking Aestia and launched the Northern Crusade. The external pressures inflicted on the country caused another economic hardships and unrests among it's citizens. In order to sustain inner peace in 1246 they decided to form a confederation. However, after gaining more freedom many of the city-states seceded in order to become entirely free and independent. Soon after that the High Council disintegrated. This is considered by historians to be the end of Coursa's existence. The Northern Crusade (1244—1374) The first crusaders arrived to Coursa proper (modern Aestia) in 1244. Initially they did not get any major advancements therefore they conquered the neutral city of Riga and selected it as their main base of operations in 1249 when with the pope's blessing they founded the Order of the Sword to subjugate the local people who did not want to convert to Christianity. In response to the actions of the German crusaders in 1249 Couronian city-states of former Coursa reached an agreement and restored the confederation in order to fight the incoming crusade and the Mongols. The Mongols reached the border of their new confederation in 1254 but they didn't get much further before they retreated. A year later they commissioned the so called Impregnable Wall which was never fully finished. By 1255 the crusaders had baptized the local Livonians who lived in the neighbourhood of the estuary of the Daugava river on whose coast Riga is situated. In 1256 Couronian and Semigallian united forces planned to ruin the city but someone had leaked the information to the crusaders and the plan failed as the whole army was beleaguered next to the city gates by the crusaders. This was such a great loss that Semigallians lost half of their territories in the same year. This caused a distrust towards Couruonians and they chose to battle the crusaders alone. Semigallian resistance movement was soon suppressed by the crusaders and the last Semigallian foothold was plundered in 1267. While this was being done the crusaders managed to come to an agreement with the peaceful Selonians. In the same year they were baptized by Bishop Paul I. In response to this the knyaz of the Principality of Polotsk began the conquest of the Latgalian lands who had been desperately trying to resist them for centuries. This was advantageous to the crusaders because the Latgalians thought of them as the lesser of two evils. They went for help to the crusaders to help them fight against the Principality of Polotsk promising their loyalty to the crusaders in exchange. The mightiest of the Latgalian states was fully incorporated into the order's lands by 1271. Others followed the same path. That way they had beleaguered Livonian lands whose conquest ended in 1284. By this time Estonia had already been occupied. The order was now able to point all of their forces against the Couronians who had been able to stand against the order. In 1286 Memel was founded by the crusaders as the base of operations in the southern part of Couronian lands which were conquered in no time. By 1330 only the Livonian-Couronian state of Vanemana remained to stand against the crusaders. When the Black Death reached Aestia the Vanemanans had been nearly defeated. This allowed them to continue their fight against the order who was much harder hit because the Couronians lived mainly in khutors whereas the crusaders - in cities and towns. Vanemana was finally conquered in 1374 after it lost it's chieftain who made a suicide unable to fight the incoming crusader forces. This was followed by the baptism of Vanemana in 1375. Not all of them accepted Christianity and though they were juridically christians the pagan beliefs were still in practice. German period (1249—1561) By the late 14th century the Order of the Sword had occcupied all of modern Aestia. The crusaders had founded a confederation named Baltia. It consisted of many bishoprics and the Order of the Sword's territories which sometimes warred against each other. Baltia was beset by internal struggles from the very beginning of it's existence. One such problem was the city of Riga. Both the Order of the Sword and the Archbishopric of Riga claimed it as their own which caused many battles between the two. During this time Riga suffered greatly as it underwent many fires and it had to be rebuilt a number of times afterwards. In 1351 they finally decided that Riga be a neutral ground yet a part of Baltia. This was followed by another problem - the many vassals of Baltia wanted to have more freedom. This was done in 1367 and is known as the Act of Freedoms. Later this caused the internal weakness of the confederation as they were unable to find a solution to common problems. Baltia marked a new era in the history of Aestia. Paganism was abolished (though still practiced) and replaced by Christianity, khutors started to get replaced by villages and and the whole of modern Aestia was integrated into the European society. Reformation made already weak Aestia even weaker. It paved a way for Couronians to take up arms against their oppressors and the enforcers of Christianity. In 1522 Couronians rebelled against them in the Night of Thousand Stars Uprising which later turned into a full-scale war between the weakened German crusaders, rebellous Couronians and later Russia, Sweden and Poland as well. The crusaders lost their centuries long power over Couronians. Swedish - Polish period Second Baltic War Decades before the Second Baltic War began Baltia was already facing internal difficulties. The country was already de facto dependent on Poland whose power only grew at the time. Reformation made matters worse. Couronians took advantage of that and used it as an excuse to fight the Germans. The war began with riots on early May of 1522 in Kuldīga which later turned into Night of Thousand Stars Uprising. The German crusaders quickly lost their grip over the subdued Couronians and issued a number of manifestos to increase the freedoms of their citizens but this didn't help, anyway. The whole of northern Courland was controlled by the rebels by late July of 1522. Russia saw advantage of this and attacked Baltia. In order to protect their interests in Baltia which was already under their de facto control prior to the war, Poland joined the war. German crusaders allied with Poland to fight Russia. Once Russia was driven out of Baltia in 1526, Sweden joined the war. As it didn't want to let Poland gain full control over the Baltic Sea. Denmark was also involved in the war but it's participation in the war was of little to no significance. Although no active warfare occured in the later years, officially the war ended in 1537 with the Riga Agreement which was signed between Poland and Sweden. Baltia was split in two - the northern part which constitutes modern day Estonia and Vidzeme went to Sweden whereas Poland got the southern part. Both countries formed an alliance against Russia which endangered both countries' interests in the region. Kingdom of Livonia (1526-1588) Swedish Aestia (1526-1621) Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (1523-1621) The Duchy was founded in 1523, after the German royalty (crusaders) allied with Poland against Russia. Julius Abendroth, the master of the Order of the Sword was appointed to be the new duke of the duchy. In order to avoid any future events like the Night of Thousand Stars Uprising he issued more manifestos which extended the rights of the duchy's citizens. Up until the end of 16th century the duchy had to fight guerillas in the northern Courland as well as the Kingdom of Livonia which even caused some strife with Sweden. In the 1540s Friedrich Abendroth, son of Julius Abendroth, initiated a major population education policy. However, at this period the king of Poland enforced polonization and christianity enforcing campaign which ended only with his death in 1561. This lowered the support to the authorities of Poland and the duchy. 1600 was marked by another coup d'état. Abrahm Redhair was the leader of the coup and the subsequent ruler of the duchy. His rule was not rezognized by the crown of Poland which didn't do anything to stop him from ruling over the duchy, though. In 1601 he stopped paying fees to the king of Poland, declared freedom of religion in the duchy and declared Couronian language as the sole official language of the duchy. He initiated an aggresive trade and manufacturing policy. This later made the duchy the most developed and most wealthy of Poland's regions. In 1617 he abolished serfdom which was a dangerous decision. The tension between the Abrahm Redhair and the German royalty rose to dangerous levels. In 1619 German royalty was subtracted from their landlord rights and deprived from most of their properties thus they were financially unable to organize the coup. Some of them were exiled while the others were imprisoned or repressed elseway. In 1620 Abrahm Redhair declared and in 1621 annexed Higher Courland, which is now part of both, Poland and Belarus, because it had a large Couronian population living in it. The patience of Poland was full and it declared war on the duchy in the same year. However, no actual warfare began. In response to that Courland declared itself an independent nation on August 12, 1621. Internationally it was recognized only by Russia and Sweden. Inflanty Voivodeship (1537-1726) Duchy of Courland (1621-1795) In 1624 Courland bought the city of Vastervik but in 1627 it regained control over Gotland and Ertholmene. Thus a fruitful soil was ready for trade and the conquest of the new world. In 1631 5 ships were sent to Tobago. They built a permanent settlement in early 1632 on the isle and declared the isle their land. In 1638 the whole isle was colonized. In 1639 they landed on another isle in South America, Trinidad. It was finally conquered from Spain by 1651. However, no further progress was made in the South America. Simultaneously a colony was conquered in Africa. Russian period (1710-1805) Independence (1805-1945) World War I Interwar period World War II Post war period Communist Aestia (1945-1954) Contemporary history (since 1954) Geography Environmental protection Aestia has 8 national parks: * Šlītere National Park in Courland (since 1936); :: Šlītere National Park is often known as Blue Hills Park and is located in the northernmost edge of Courland. It is by far one of the most visited places in Aestia which is famous for it's Livonian culture, Blue Hills, Haven Falls, Petal Creek and other tourist destinations. * Kuršiu kāps National Park in Zhematia (since 1960); * Kemeriu National Park in Semigallia (since 1967); :: Kemeriu National Park on the outskirts of Riga was founded to protect the biggest bog complex in modern day Aestia from the extraction of turf. Parts of it were the site of battles against Napoleon's troops. It is important to a number of bird species, and some of the plant species are endemic. * Selonia National Park in Selonia (since 1967); * Vilsandi National Park in the Isles (since 1967); * Gauja National Park in Gaujmala (since 1973); :: The marvelous Gauja river valley and the surrounding natural and historical heritage have been the reason why the national park was created. It holds over 400 attractions which are all worth visiting. * Vēna National Park in Selonia and Central Aestia (since 1990); :: Vēna National Park was founded to protect the beauteous Vēna river valley. Many hill forts tower above the valley and numerous waterfalls seep into the river. This is the site of the Aestian Song Festival since 1925. In 1973 a garden was erected in memory of those who perished in World War II. * Rāzna National Park in Lotigola (since 1996). :: It is the site of the legendary lake nicknamed The Sea of Lotigola which is the main attraction of the national park. It is also the location of the highest mountain of Aestia - Dīvdorzs which is 1,037 metres high and the last remaining old-growth forest in Aestia. Politics Economy Demographics Culture See also * Baltic League Category:Aestia Category:Altearth